While neither Gallogly nor Parsons is running for office, Democrats and the Obama campaign have sought in some ways to demonize the industry itself, part of an aggressive effort to discredit Romney’s top selling point.

***

Conversations with liberal activists and labor officials reveal an unmistakable hostility toward the pro-business, free-trade, free-market philosophy that was in vogue during the second half of the Clinton administration. Former White House Chief of Staff William Daley, who tried to steer the Obama administration in a more centrist direction, is the subject of particular derision. Discussion of entitlement reforms, at the heart of the GOP governing agenda, is a nonstarter. The fiscally conservative Blue Dog Democrats are now nearly extinct on Capitol Hill.

Moderate Democratic groups and officials, meanwhile, privately fret about the party’s leftward drift and the Obama campaign’s embrace of an aggressively populist message. They’re disappointed that the administration didn’t take the lead advancing the Simpson-Bowles deficit-reduction proposal, they wish the administration’s focus was on growth over fairness, and they are frustrated with the persistent congressional gridlock. Third Way, the centrist Democratic think tank, has been generating analyses underscoring the need for Democrats to appeal to middle-of-the-road voters, to no avail.

“There are not a lot of moderates left in the Democratic Party, and Cory is one of the few of them left,” said former Democratic Rep. Artur Davis, an early Obama ally who has become increasingly estranged from the party. “I would like to think Cory speaks for a lot of voters in the Democratic Party, but sadly he doesn’t speak for a lot of Democratic operatives within the party. This isn’t Bill Clinton’s Democratic Party anymore.”

***

Many a requiem has been written for “that hopey-changey thing,” as Sarah Palin so memorably dubbed it. And to be sure, much of the griping about the president’s harsh tone is the disingenuous phony outrage of Republicans who would prefer not to be its targets. But as Obama embarks in earnest on his second presidential campaign, deliberately invoking the echoes of 2008 as he does so, the contrast with his old image is especially stark.

From the beginning, the president’s reelection campaign has taken a brutal, no-holds-barred approach that’s sharply at odds with the conciliatory image that was the central predicate of Obama’s entire pre-presidential political career. Whether or not the specific issue of Bain Capital ought to be off limits — Booker has taken pains to clarify he doesn’t think it should be — there’s no denying that Obama’s 2012 campaign has seized every opportunity to turn the campaign toward sharply personal attacks of a type that the 2008-vintage Obama would surely have recoiled from. From Romney’s treatment of his onetime pet dog to his high-school pranks to his income-tax rate, from the “war on women” to the “war on caterpillars,” from “I like being able to fire people” to “I’m not concerned about the very poor,” no potential controversy has been too petty, too rhetorically overblown or too out-of-context to be exploited to the hilt.

None of this is shocking — it’s how the game is played. But Obama once ostentatiously refused to play it.

***

Obama’s ads betray a belief that profits are, at best, a necessary evil that should always take a back seat to other community concerns. This probably explains his “investments” in losers like Solyndra and high-speed rail (for the sake of the Earth), as well as his bailouts of Chrysler and General Motors (for the sake of the unions). Never mind that Solyndra had an unsustainable business model, or that taxpayers spent $50 billion to save a car company that is worth only $34 billion today.

What Team Obama still doesn’t understand is that profits are just a signal that businesses depend on to determine how best to invest their resources. Thanks to profit-seeking private equity, many of America’s bloated industries that had stagnated in the 1970s came back to life in the 1980s and 1990s. As capital was reallocated from poor performers to profit-makers, new jobs arose in more productive economic enterprises…

[I]t’s not so much that Team Obama is using Bain, which would be an inevitable part of any campaign (Democratic or Republican). It’s rather that they have so little else to work with. What is the positive message of the Obama campaign? What is the vision for a second term? I’m not seeing much of anything on that front.

And that points to a core mistake that the Obama White House has made time and time again: they’ve ignored public opinion. Poll after poll shows that the president is unpopular in general, and specifically on the economy, but those same polls indicate that most people do not blame him for the recession. Obviously, he’s saddling some of the responsibility for the weak recovery – but there is more to it. Specifically, the government has appeared to have done nothing about the problem since February 2009…

“The fact is that I spent 25 years in the private sector. And that obviously teaches you something that you don’t learn if you haven’t spent any time in the private sector … You learn through life’s experience,” Romney said, in his first public response to Obama’s criticism. “The president’s experience has been exclusively in politics and as a community organizer. Both of those are fine areas of endeavor, but right now we have an economy in trouble, and someone who spent their career in the economy is more suited to help fix the economy than someone who spent his life in politics and as a community organizer.”

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Obama hates American business. He knows American business is afraid of him and will pay him off. Other than that he has no interest in them.
American business understands the above. Their choice is to get him out of office or suffer his arrows for an additional 4 years: arrows meant to kill.

The entire Democrat narrative on the Bain issue is a fraud / gross hypocrisy. The blogosphere and beltway pundits are damned fools to keep talking about it or treating it as a legitimate charge or contextual framework.

Jobs Council you say? See now lets me plain dis to ya. The 0 Economy™ don’t work like this here. Rmoney™ folk cheat. The 0 Economy creates jobs and unemployment, cause we can multitask. All Rmoney™ is capable of is demons.

A firm founded by former Obama administration official and top Democratic fundraiser, Steve Rattner, and a top New York political consulting firm, the Global Strategy Group, have paid millions in penalties to the state and to the Securities and Exchange Commission in the widening fallout over money managers’ use of political connections to lay hands on public workers’ pension money.

The general partners in Quadrangle — who no longer include Rattner, the former “auto czar” Rattner — has paid a $5 million penalty to the Securities and Exchange Commission and another $7 million to New York over charges Rattner participated in a “kickback scheme” with officials close to former New York State Comptroller Alan Hevesi, according to an SEC press release.

The firm, Quadrangle, was founded by Rattner, who served as Obama’s auto czar and left abruptly, but not too abruptly. It invested in an obscure movie produced the brother of a top official in the New York State Comptroller’s office, which in turn handed over $100 million to manage.

suggesting at a fundraiser here that he (mitt)hasn’t “spent time working in the real world.”

community organizer is a real world job apparently

cmsinaz on May 23, 2012 at 10:50 PM

There are many things that can be said about Romney, but to claim he didn’t spend time working in the real world is preposterous. This sounds like an offshoot of the Ann Romney smear by Hilary Rosen. And who the hell is Obama to talk about anyone else’s real world experience(or lack thereof). This is a man who literally never worked a day in his life outside of politics or academia.

Time will tell. I am happy to see BedBug. If he is being honest with us. Which I am willing to believe he is. I base this on his own words. Many folks who are now Conservative were once from the other side of the isle. If you suspect BedBugs timing. Then keep an eye on him. I am hopeful he is sincere. ; ) He is his own person, so I have no control over him anyway. ; ) I’m willing to play nice. Providing he brought a tune. : )

Time will tell. I am happy to see BedBug. If he is being honest with us. Which I am willing to believe he is. I base this on his own words. Many folks who are now Conservative were once from the other side of the isle. If you suspect BedBugs timing. Then keep an eye on him. I am hopeful he is sincere. ; ) He is his own person, so I have no control over him anyway. ; ) I’m willing to play nice. Providing he brought a tune. : )

Bmore on May 23, 2012 at 11:05 PM

I blame you two for converting me. If it helps, that Dr. Tesla guy is a giant dope.

What Team Obama still doesn’t understand is that profits are just a signal that businesses depend on to determine how best to invest their resources. Thanks to profit-seeking private equity, many of America’s bloated industries that had stagnated in the 1970s came back to life in the 1980s and 1990s. As capital was reallocated from poor performers to profit-makers, new jobs arose in more productive economic enterprises…

this is false. O perfectly understands profits…you vote for me and you’ll be rewarded with big profits.

Obama/Left want to control the signal. They perfectly understand the signals that markets rely on…but just like carbon, they want to control the signal.

You will do it my way, or you’ll be poor. Leftists are very clear in their signals

But we’re not electing Bain Capital as President, we are electing (nominating at this point) someone that has a vision of an America that is not slumping towards a 3rd World Cesspool (like Kenya) dominated by Racists (like Hawaii and its racist cronyist state government.)

We are looking for a person that embodies the ideals, principles and standards that we want American to be known for. It is hypocritical for Obama to state that Romney’s pass matters when he continues to keep his past sealed under lock and key, such as there is of it.

Perhaps Romney should start running attack ads based on the assertion that Obama hates America, either that or is the dumbest man ever elected to the White House.

Perhaps the biggest story isn’t that Obama is from Chicago and thus is corrupt, but that he has brought the rampant virulence of institutionalized racism and corruption from Hawaii to the continent. One only has to look at who he has associated with (Wright) and associates with (Holder) to determine the fact that there is something rotten in these States.

Well. They say liberalism is a mental disease. When all your family, friends are liberal, that’s all you hear.

BedBug on May 23, 2012 at 11:00 PM

…to YOU I want to apologize!…*I was not very nice!*…

KOOLAID2 on May 23, 2012 at 11:08 PM

I accept it and apologize as well. I was a horse’s back end as well. I look back and cringe. I was so angry.
They say the party of hate is on the right. It’s not and OWS, Obama, the attacks have proven it. But, you won’t see it where I used to get my news.

Time will tell. I am happy to see BedBug. If he is being honest with us. Which I am willing to believe he is. I base this on his own words. Many folks who are now Conservative were once from the other side of the isle. If you suspect BedBugs timing. Then keep an eye on him. I am hopeful he is sincere. ; ) He is his own person, so I have no control over him anyway. ; ) I’m willing to play nice. Providing he brought a tune. : )

Bmore on May 23, 2012 at 11:05 PM

I blame you two for converting me. If it helps, that Dr. Tesla guy is a giant dope.

I blame you two for converting me. If it helps, that Dr. Tesla guy is a giant dope.

BedBug on May 23, 2012 at 11:07 PM

Oh no you don’t. You know the old saying. “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.” Folks have to get there all on their own or it won’t stick. ; )

Bmore on May 23, 2012 at 11:12 PM

Alright. Let me rephrase that. I was already seeing the light in the middle of 2010. The economy was undeniably bad and Obama wouldn’t take responsibility for anything. I still wanted to believe. I started reading here, thanks to a friend. Then, I finally got to register and started fighting immediately. You and Elec God actually took the time to discuss. Not just call me a troll, which I was. With that and some reading, Rush, I’m moving to almost center right. Still have issues with social issues

Memo to Rattner: Romney never claimed he was “the world’s greatest job creator”. But there is no denying that the investments Bain made, and Romney’s years on the boards of these companies/guiding these companies, did ultimately create (and save!) jobs. So if it’s fair for Obama to make claims about job creation, surely it’s fair for Romney to make them, and in Romney’s case these investments weren’t made to enrich donors and other cronies, nor were they taxpayer funded, nor did the majority of them flop like Solyndra and the rest of O’s efforts.